However, this is not a Tour review, nor is it really a BlackBerry review. It’s more of a carrier review. I have made my less than favorable feelings of the Verizon Wireless issues quite present over the past year and a half or so, which is why that it surprises even myself that I am writing this.

2 of my biggest complaints over the past couple of years has been the way that Verizon has locked down BlackBerry’s GPS and WiFi. On top of that however I suppose you could add the lack of new BlackBerry Devices to their network, high data prices, unfavorable tethering experiences etc.

I’m assuming that the CEO’s of Verizon have read my posts and reacted accordingly (ya right) but honestly, they have taken what the community has said demanded and worked with it. I can now use the GPS chip on my tour with whatever software app that I choose, and affirmatively all new BlackBerrys starting with the Storm 2 will be available with Wifi. On top of this, in the past 1 year, Verizon has released a total of 5 new BlackBerry devices (Storm 1, Storm 2, Tour, Pearl Flip, and 8530) 6 if you count the different iterations of Tour, which i don’t. That’s pretty impressive for a carrier who only a year and a half ago carried a whopping 3 different BlackBerry Devices.

Being the number 1 carrier in the country, as of January 2009, Verizon has yet to have any of the coverage meltdowns that ATT has shown in several of it’s major metropolitan iPhone communities. While I grant ATT a little bit of sympathy about the sheer amount of data added to their infrastructure in such a short amount of time, C’mon they have had the iPhone for over 2 and a half years and the 3G for a year and a half now and the problem is getting worse.

I won’t lie and say that I have never had a little bit of iPhone envy, but if it won’t work when I’m in a big city, then screw it. The horror stories that I have heard about the 3G connections in San Francisco, the Heart of silicon Valley, and to a lesser extent New York City, truly make me grateful for having my service with a reliable and reputable carrier.

Added to all of this are the “There’s a Map for That” ads that we have seen from Verizon attacking ATT directly, as well as the Droid ads Slamming the iPhone on most every negative feature.

Where did this “new” feisty, physical and in some respects brave Verizon come from? Could it be that they are getting desperate with the success of the iPhone? Just another marketing platform? Whatever it is, the recent events of the past year have really gotten me buzzed up about Verizon. I wouldn’t change carriers even if i had the choice… which brings me to my last point.

Now before anyone jumps on me and claims that my review was somehow influenced by Big Red, I do want to call out something that in my mind almost outweighs all the positive things that they have done. The EFT Price increase structure that we spoke of earlier to as much as 350 bucks. Shame on you Verizon, you have done so many good things for the BlackBerry Smart Phone community this year, why tarnish your record with something like this?

Overall I must throw my weight behind the “guy in my corner” a little bit, but I do pay close attention to news unrelated to BlackBerry and Verizon. I am amazed at the idea of true competition in the sector working like this to create a better experience for the end user.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Verizon BlackBerry Tour Gets Reviewed Again
• Verizon Sold 300,000 BlackBerry Tours in First Day?
• Verizon Raising ETF for “Advanced Devices” up to $350?
• I Dub Thee Verizon "Storm"
• Verizon BlackBerry Tour Gets Unboxed

Posted by Nate for ©BerryReview, November 12, 2009, 5:17 pm. | Big Red Wins Me Back? | 7 comments |

Brian Z., a RIM employee, wrote a great article on the Developers Blog about porting games to the BlackBerry OS. I cannot count the times I have installed a game or even an application just to learn that it was just a stupid port. For example, I ran into one game that still made me use the number keys for controls as if the trackball did not exist. Another game I was using was obviously a port since I had to use the Q and P keys just like soft keys on a dumb phone. This is not how gaming should be! It defeats the purpose since the game will never live up to its potential.

I did not mention the names of the games since they are irrelevant in those cases but there are two companies that have notoriously let me down in this regard. Those are Capcom and Electronic Arts. I remember firing up SKATE from EA and that at least let you use the trackball to control the game. The problem was that you had to be able to move diagonally and the trackball only supports up, down, left, and right. It was like nobody had ever bothered trying the game on a BlackBerry! I don’t even want to get started on how Capcom ruined CONTRA.

You can see this over and over in the App World reviews. Just check out this listing for Sonic the Hedgehog. This could have been an awesome game! Instead you get a game that has decent graphics and atrocious controls. Tetris POP fell to the same fate. Even popular applications like Opera Mini are susceptible to this when they do not follow the same functionality that users are expecting. For example, in the new beta when you hit the back button you do not close the application!

I highly recommend that anybody looking to port their games to the BlackBerry OS read Brian’s article. He is planning on following up with a Part 2 for that article which will hopefully go into some of RIM’s experiences with ported applications.

So does anybody else have a horror story about buying a potentially awesome game/app only to realize that it is crippled by lack of customization for the BlackBerry Platform?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Magmic Signs With Hudson Soft To Bring More Games To BlackBerry
• EA Mobile Pushing Their BlackBerry Games At CTIA
• Magmic Partners With IG Fun To Port Games To BlackBerry
• Review: Call Of Duty 3 – Magmic Games
• BlackBerry Developers Wanted

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 16, 2009, 1:43 pm. | Developers – Please Customize Ported Games for BlackBerry | One comment |

RIM has made an effort in the last few months to release tools such as the Developer Issue Tracker but most resolutions just tell you that it has been fixed in future OS versions. For example, a bug we submitted about the OS 4.6 browser was resolved by saying it was fixed in OS 4.7.

Since the middle of July, I have stumbled upon the following bugs, both of which took significant time to troubleshoot:

1. Anagram [http://getanagram.com/blackberry]: Anagram v0.9.9 innocently invoked a limitation within the Address Book app that would not allow contacts without a company name but NO first or last name to be edited on the device and be synced back to Outlook. I was able to identify Anagram as the culprit based upon exceptions logged to the device log. Once brought to the developer’s attention, this was resolved with a “silent” release of Anagram 0.9.10 – Anagram 1.0 is in the works.

2. Several third-party apps – PodTrapper [http://versatilemonkey.com], RSA SecurID Token for BlackBerry [http://rsa.com], and SmrtGuard [http://SmrtGuard.com] (there may be more) – that apparently register a handler for the ‘text/xml’ type break the built-in RIM Messages app as far as displaying “some” HTML or multi-part e-mail messages with attachments. The messages show an “attachment” of type text/plain that cannot be viewed or displayed on the device in addition to the “legitimate” attachments. SmrtGuard caused this problem for me, which has taken several weeks for me to narrow down as I could not easily identify consistent cases where is did or did not occur. PodTrapper has since issued a beta version of their software that addresses the issue, but as far as I know, the other two developers are still investigating the issue (SmrtGuard hopes to release an update by week’s end! J). Some BlackBerry community forum posts that I found that discuss this issue are:

• http://forums.crackberry.com/f132/text-attachment-243433/
• http://forums.crackberry.com/showthread.php?p=3541797#post3541797
• http://versatilemonkey.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=542
• http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board/message?board.id=BlackBerryDesktopSoftware&message.id=11028

A user’s first reaction is that these are obviously OS issues, but neither the carriers nor RIM are able to reproduce the problems – it is let to the user to attempt to determine the root cause. I find it interesting that RIM’s own forum does not identify the cause of the problem not the interim work-around (I have since replied to the post! ).

Additionally, version-specific API and OS limitations or bugs continue to cause problems for third-party application developers:

1. Fabian Heuwieser, who frequents BerryReview, has been unable to resolve an issue caused by changes in OS 4.7.1 for the Tour in LaterDude Pro [http://mobileutil.com]. The app is unable to extract a phone number from the Call Log for reminders on this particular device.
2. Matthias Marquardt, developer of FileScout, GPSLogger, and GPSsies Connect [http://emacberry.com], is constantly wrestling with API limitations and OS version-specific bugs. The latest being that “For some reason, the layout manager does not support horizontal & vertical scrolling within a TextField for the touch screen [Storm-specific] at the same time (looks like a bug in the OS) … I tried all my best to get around this flaw but I was not successful yet – my apologies for this inconvenience.” Issues such as this continue to frustrate Matthias in his attempt to expand the capabilities of his apps even further. A couple more of his “favorites” are: 

•  “One that is IMHO way more funny is the ProgressBar implementation – where you specify MIN and MAX value [max progress value can be Integer.MAX] – but when they calculate the percentage value they multiply the current value with 100 and then divide by the MAX value (in order to get the percentage value). The Problem is, when the current value get’s in an area of Integer.MAX/100 then it will happen, that the the Integer gets an overflow. In Java this will result in a negative value. This will cause the “default progress bar” to jump from a positive percentage value to something negative… increasing become zero, continue increasing and then instantly fall back to a negative value again. This will repeat for some time. This is a problem (Integer overflow) that each Java developer will learn in the first year of developing software… This error is in ALL 4.x OS!!!” [http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board/message?board.id=java_dev&thread.id=27138]
• “Bold & Storm have inverted altitude values from the GPS-Antenna…” This one now affects the Tour, too!

It simply amazes me the amount of effort and time that developers and users alike must spend in order to identify and to work around RIM bugs.

I know that these are only a few specific examples that I have identified, but please feel free to add additional instances as Comments.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Hot New API’s Coming in OS 5.0: 3rd Party Apps Can Finally Use Dedicated Media Buttons & More
• RANT! Why Is Developing For BlackBerry Such A Pain?
• Anagram .9.7 Fixes 2 Bugs – Gwabbit Officially Released
• RIM Releases (Buggy) Public Bug Tracker for Developers
• SmrtGuard v1.65 Released – Fixes Backup DNS Issue

Posted by Tom for ©BerryReview, September 11, 2009, 3:00 pm. | Rant: 3rd-Party Apps That Break OS Functions! | 6 comments |

Dear RIM et al,

Over the past few years you (RIM) have been moving aggressively into the consumer market and have become quite successful in doing so. You had a solid base of push email and devices that “just worked.” Along with this consumer push came new features such as cameras, media players, streaming audio/video, instant messaging, and even Facebook. This slow feature creep has taken BlackBerrys from a simple pager that you have slowly evolved into an uber-PDA that many cannot live without.

When RIM first started there was a definite need for you to woo carriers into selling and supporting your devices. BlackBerrys required extra infrastructure from carriers such as BIS and support for devices that were different from what carriers regularly offered. To do this you did whatever each carriers asked in terms of modifying your devices and systems . You also focused on large businesses during that time and created the BES solution to provide users with mobile calendars and then notes, tasks, and contacts. Improved security was a must as BlackBerrys started being adopted by the government and other protective organizations. This created a niche of BlackBerry users who became dependent on this solution.

Now many years later you have a huge consumer user base that easily rivals your enterprise base and they are clamoring for a change in how RIM does business. Until now you have always put carriers before consumers. Put carrier revenue streams before customer features. Put enterprise customers before regular customers. This has to change. You are no longer a small upstart who needs to bend to every carriers whim. You work with hundreds of carriers around the world who are making TONS of money off your solutions. When carriers like Verizon ask you to disable GPS you HAVE to put consumers before carriers because at the end of the day consumers decide your future not carriers.

The second you started focusing on consumers instead of businesses you were stuck at a crossroads. Consumers are not as interested in security and solutions like BES that cost more than most are willing to pay. You were faced with conflict after conflict when it came to marrying consumer features to the core BlackBerry system. For example, When OS 4.0 came out many users were clamoring for direct TCP or WAP APN connections since carriers were either blocking them or charging per kilobyte for the pleasure of using this service even when they were on an unlimited data plan. BES customers were fine since MDS provided a TCP gateway but consumers were left out in the cold. It took years until carriers changed their tune and opened up TCP to users and it took you even longer to offer BIS-B connections to alleviate some of the need for direct TCP.

There are many more current and historic examples of where carriers, partner relationships, and enterprise customers were placed before consumers. Here are a few notable ones:

IM Clients: When you first released the amazing Google Talk, AIM, WLM, Yahoo Messenger, and ICQ clients they did not work on many carriers. Not because of technical reasons but rather because you gave carriers the option of which clients to support and provide. WHY? Any other third party developer could have released these clients without getting carrier approval so why didn’t you do the same? Instead of pushing out the service books yourself you gave carriers control over a feature that customers wanted for no reason other than putting carriers whims and revenue streams before consumers.

OS Upgrades: Every current BlackBerry OS release needs to be approved by each carrier individually before they release it. This requirement is nonsense. It could be that carriers need to approve the radio module but the rest of the OS has nothing to do with the carrier. It has become laughable that users have to resort to leaked OS version or even another carriers OS version since it takes months if not years for a carrier to release an update. I always wonder how Apple manages to update the OS of every iPhone worldwide in one day while RIM is forced to do it piecemeal. This would be like getting an ISP’s approval for every Windows Update package.

Wireless OS Upgrades: I was super excited when you released the ability to do a wireless upgrade but once again this was hobbled to only allow you to install a carriers approved OS on top of that same carriers previous approved OS. This is such a laughable restriction that I do not know one person who has actually bothered using it.

Outages: A large portion of your userbase are now consumers. They depend on your service 24 hours a day every day. Is there any reason they should be treated like second class citizens compared to enterprise customers? Why do we need to resort to mailing lists to get any confirmation on when there is an outage? Do consumers not deserve an SLA or at the very least an explanation and apology?

PIM Sync (calendar/contacts/memos/etc): BES has long been the leader when it comes to synching your calendar, contacts, and other PIM over the air. It does this beautifully but it costs a pretty penny for companies. This also puts it out of the reach of most consumers who would have to pay about $10 for a BES plan and then another $10-15 a month for an enterprise BlackBerry plan. That means that PIM sync would cost a consumer about $20-25 more a month.

Five years ago that was fine since most users were not expecting PIM sync. Now almost EVERY smartphone has ActiveSync support which allows users to sync their PIM FREE! It almost feels like you are holding out on this feature just to differentiate consumers from BES users. Google Contacts Sync in 2.8 might remediate this fault to some extent but still we are missing calendar, notes, and tasks sync at the very least along with any Exchange support.

App World: This one just amazes me. The whole purpose of the BlackBerry App World was to help users discover new applications ESPECIALLY new users. With that said I cannot believe that not one BlackBerry actually ships or plans to ship with App World installed. That means that new users will have no way to discover the application that will help them discover other BlackBerry applications. All the while carriers are pushing out 10-20 Spam homescreen icons trying to upsell everything from ringtones to mobile TV.

BlackBerry Internet Service: One thing has always bothered me about BIS. Why do you have to have a different account for every carrier? I have had BlackBerrys on all 4 big US carriers and have an account on all of them. Why? Is it really that hard to associate my device with the carrier network it is registered to? This presents a big problem for me when I move my device from one carrier to another since there is no way to disassociate my PIN and IMEI from one carrier to another without entering in a new one. I have had to spend over 10+ hours with customer service resetting this association in the past. This is all due to the lack of a simple feature. The ability to delete your account and the ability to reset a PIN and IMEI associated with that account. The only reason I can think of why this has not been implemented is because it makes it easier to switch carriers…

Security: Consumers do care about security but they usually care more about functionality. This paranoid security is brilliant for businesses but there are countless consumer features that are hobbled by such restrictions. For example, there is no way to record a call on your BlackBerry. My old Nokia 3650 had this feature years ago. It could be that you do not want to create such an application since it may be used to break the law but you have also stopped any developer from being able to create such an application. There is also a annoying restriction on being able to record sound while playing back sound at the same time. The BlackBerry is obviously capable of doing this in a phone call but you have not released any API’s to do this since it may lead to VOIP. Once again carriers before consumers. Other security features such as input injection being disabled while in a holster are also frustrating for consumers. This means that applications that change your profile or do anything similar cannot work while holstered or sometimes even locked. I understand how this may be necessary for some businesses but there is no way to turn it off!

With that all said this brings me back to the point of this article. There are countless cases that I can rattle off the top of my head detailing how you have let carriers dilute your relationship with consumers. It is time you realize that you are the one who has the upper hand in this carrier-manufacturer relationship. Take a page out of Apple’s book and use that clout to create the best possible user experience to which nobody else compares. You still have the lead in the smartphone race but the competition is starting to catch up and even surpass you in terms of consumer experience in certain areas. You need to re-assume the innovative role where the competition is copying you instead of vise-versa.

I beg of you to act now and become the consumer evangelist you must become to truly bring us the best mobile experience.

PS: It may help if you started listening to Pink Floyd’s “Dogs” lyrics as a inspirational mantra but I digress.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• BIS 2.6 to Bring New Low Cost @BlackBerry Service – Aimed at Lowering the Barrier & Addicting Price Conscious Customers
• Funambol – Open Source Sync Solution Sticking Around
• Press Release! AppStore is Official!
• New RIM Campaign – Ask Somebody Why They Hate Their BlackBerry
• US Cellular To Upgrade BIS 2.6 Tomorrow

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 4, 2009, 5:00 pm. | I Have A BlackBerry Dream – An Open Letter to RIM | 19 comments |

Just look at the latest 10 homescreen shortcuts AT&T has pushed out:

1. AT&T Mall
2. Brain Challenge Vol 2
3. Make-UR-Tones
4. MobiTV
5. Music Videos
6. My-Cast Weather
7. PAC-MAN by Namco
8. Scrabble
9. Tetris
10. WikiMobile

Seriously AT&T! Was this really necessary? This is on top of the 13 icons you have already pushed out to my device!

1. AT&T Navigator
2. Cellular Video
3. Shop Applications
4. Shop Games
5. Shop Multimedia
6. Shop Themes
7. Shop Graphics
8. Shop Tones
9. Shop Music
10. Music Apps
11. MusicID
12. XM Radio
13. Yellow Pages.com Mobile

RIM really needs to get a handle on these homescreen shortcuts. Its bad enough that RIM promotes them so much but letting carriers just push out as many as they want and never expiring them is just getting ridiculous. I now have 23 hidden AT&T homescreen icons on my device! When will it end?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RANT! RIM & Facebook Annoying BlackBerry Users
• Homescreen Shortcuts As A Service?
• 15 Free Homescreen Shortcuts – eBay, YouTube, BBC…
• More MLB Homescreen Shortcuts… YAWN
• IconArchive.com – Nice Free Icons For Web Shortcuts

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, April 21, 2009, 3:00 pm. | RANT! RIM Needs To Put a Limit on Carrier Homescreen Shortcuts | 28 comments |

The announcement says: “Be Prepared. Research In Motion and TIM’s (Brazilian carrier) weather forecast warns you of a storm of changes heading towards Brazil and hitting on March 10. More information coming soon.”

Be prepared, alright. I certainly expect a “storm,” but not a pretty one, and who can blame me for that? I read articles and BlackBerry forums quite often and I know that the Storm has been disappointing a lot of people. A lot. In fact, I know one huge BlackBerry fan who has had just about every single BlackBerry model in the last few years. Please excuse me while I consult him briefly on this matter.

Luciano: – Hello, Greg. Pray tell, isn’t it true that you loathe the Storm so much that you have plans to shoot yours with a firearm in your backyard – in Australia, where it is perfectly legal – and videotape the experience as soon as the novelty wears off for your beloved teenage daughter?

Greg Myers: – Yes, Luc. It certainly is.

Luciano: – Thank you, Greg.

Greg Myers: – No problem, mate.

OK. Back to the Storm and its many problems. That’s when most of you out there get to say “Oh, don’t worry, the latest firmware updates have solved many if not most of the problems.” OK, stop right there. What the hell is a “firmware update”? Go around on the streets with a clipboard and a smile and ask people if they know. Not everyone is prone to spend considerable time on the internets, you know that? And, for those who do, what is their experience like? Well, just see for yourself.

Here is exhibit A. That’s the Brazilian carrier Claro Web site. It requires Flash, so don’t bother trying to get in from your mobile. You’ll have to choose a state to get in. I live in the state of São Paulo, but it doesn’t really matter in the issue at hand. Just pick any one. Once you are in, have fun trying to find information about BlackBerry plans. You don’t speak Portuguese? No problem, just look for the word “BlackBerry”. Finding the devices is very easy, but can you find details on the plans? I can’t. Can you find details on how to download and install a firmware upgrade? Geez, I even had a giggling fit when I wrote this last question.

Here is exhibit B. That’s the Brazilian carrier Vivo Web site. It doesn’t require Flash for everything, but I doubt you can see much from your mobile. Same drill: click around as much as you can and try to find the damn “BlackBerry” name somewhere in that ridiculous maze of a site. Want some help? Here it is: the plans. Hey, do you see what I see? The iPhone is mentioned right there. Is anyone surprised? Information on the BlackBerry is hidden a little further, here. And this page offers some basic suport, but it’s generic to all cell phones, not just BlackBerry phones. And it certainly doesn’t mention firmware upgrades.

Exhibit C is more encouraging. Although there is no mention of “BlackBerry” on the front page or even on the “Data Plans” page, BlackBerry phones are easily found on the “Devices” page. It gets better: if you click around aimlessly for long enough, the corner of your eye might catch the word “Download” in a menu that shows up occasionally and leads you to this page inside the blackberry.com domain. This is good particularly because this is the carrier that is going to launch the Storm in Brazil shortly. But wait. First problem: the drop-down menu doesn’t offer any downloads for the Bold, their latest model. You think the Bold doesn’t need it? Wrong! I’ve seen people complain about the Bold in Brazilian forums. A firmware upgrade solved their woes, but those are people who hang around the internets, they actually have forum accounts. Other Bold owners with better things to do must be cursing their Bolds daily. Second problem: the latest firmware available for the 8300 Curve in this page is… 4.2.2.114.

And the latest firmware available for the Pearl is 4.2.0.67. Hey, 2007 called. It wants its firmware back! So which firmware versions for the Storm can we expect to find on this page when the unhappy Storm owners need one?

Now it’s time to introduce this very nice page. It features firmware download links for probably every carrier in the world that carries the BlackBerry. Nice page, really. But I am so involved with the BlackBerry that I actually write for BerryReview, sometimes articles as long as this one, and even I didn’t have that link at hand. I didn’t have it bookmarked, I had to google and check several search results to find that page. What chance does an “ordinary” BlackBerry user have?

So that page is there and features links to 5 Brazilian carriers. I am on Claro, so I choose it first, and this is how I am greeted:

RIM, what Junior High School dropout convinced you that we speak Spanish in Brazil?!! Or are you so hopelessly broke that you can’t afford a translator to give Brazilian consumers really adequate assistance? What have you been doing with all the money that millions of users worldwide give you every month?

I tried the other carriers and saw that some of them have 4.5 firmwares available, but not the latest. Storm owners are very likely to suffer with the world of pain that the Storm has been inflicting upon the innocent if that’s all the firmware they are expected to count on.

I certainly have rambled long enough, haven’t I? This is an assessment of what awaits any misguided Brazilian soul who ventures into buying the infamous BlackBerry Storm through a Brazilian carrier. Even if (big IF here) it lands here with the latest firmware, the latest firmware doesn’t solve all the problems yet, and the Storm is completely targeted at ordinary consumers who may not be prepared to or even interested in hunting firmware upgrades in the wild and going through the lengthy and scary process, and maybe wipe the device with JavaLoader.exe and start anew in case the upgrade fails (it happened to me once).

The Storm has the potential to sell a lot in Brazil because of the touch screen and that could be a disaster. The BlackBerry is not a popular brand in Brazil. There is no marketing effort in Brazil. Even in the carrier Web sites, the BlackBerry is buried under a lot of other things. The iPhone is not buried. No, it is flaunted with intent because everybody knows the iPhone, it has a lot of appeal. Even in forums populated by die-hard gadget fans, one’s fingers are more than enough to count the number of those who swear by the BlackBerry. Those who take the plunge are always pleased with the experience, but very few take that plunge. Brazilians don’t dislike the BlackBerry, they just don’t know it. So the Storm will be a lot of people’s first BlackBerry here and it could be a terrible first impression that may taint the brand’s reputation for years.

Maybe a portion of this whole scenario is the carriers’ fault, but no one is going to blame a carrier when their Storm phone is throwing the fits it has become famous for. Everyone is going to curse the BlackBerry brand, and rightly so. RIM should be overseeing all these issues, their name is on the line. You would think that a company with all that money and history would dedicate a lot more attention to detail and doing things right. Who is in charge of this? Is anyone watching the front door of the building? It’s the kind of thing that boggles my mind.

Please use the comment section below and let us know what this whole situation is like in your country. Feel free to comment on how you’re getting along with your Storm too.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• GPS-enabled BlackBerry Curve 8310 in Brazil
• Storm Surges Its Way Onto VerizonWireless.com
• Empower BES Mailbox 4.0 Released – Bold & Storm Support
• Mobipocket Free eBook Reader Beta Now Officially Supports Storm & Bold
• The Storm keeps on getting better and better

Posted by luc-mobile for ©BerryReview, March 9, 2009, 7:30 am. | The Storm comes to Brazil. I am not thrilled. | 10 comments |

Now I know this may be slightly off topic and I’m using my position for personal triumph but we really need you guys and girls to help us out here. See we only have 22 million citizens here and we need a petition signed by as many people as we can against a new government policy that is going to be introduced. 

The basic outline is the introduction of a ‘Clean Feed’ internet firewall for all Australian internet users. It will limit ALL of us here to being able to see only what the government wants us to see. The idea is to stop the flow of un-savory content to that element of the community that will find a way around it anyway.

This measure will slow internet speeds right down to crawling pace. Even worse, the blocked list will not be available to users so if the Australian government, in their wisdom, decides that a site like BerryReview should not be viewed by Australian internet users the it’s goodbye from me…. Other countries such as Iran and China have there type of measures already in use. Please help us stop it coming to Australia.

You can check out all of the details of the proposal at http://nocleanfeed.com/action.html or go direct to the petition at Sign the petition here. 

Thanks for listening and now it’s back to your regular viewing.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Network Infrastructure Project Announced in Australia
• Australia to allow mobile phone usage on Airlines
• BlackBerry Firmware v4.5.0.37 for 8310 available for Telstra Australia
• Optus release Pre-Paid BlackBerry BIS plan/Curve 8520 package.
• Free BlackBerry device for every Australian household….

Posted by Greg for ©BerryReview, December 4, 2008, 11:00 am. | Firewall to be put up around Australia; We need your help guys and girls. | 8 comments |

Now the joke gets even worse! If you need to re-download an application from Handango after 30 days from your purchase they will now charge you $6.99 to buy "Download Protection" after the fact. This is starting to sound like a car/TV warranty… Oh and the best part is that even the "Download Protection" is only good for 3 years. These files must be really expensive for Handango to store… Especially at a few hundred kilobytes a piece.

Oh and it gets even better. They still try to charge you $6.99 for applications that have a free trial in their store!!! That free trial is the SAME file they are charging you a "Protection" fee to store for you. Kind of sounds like the mob.

So like I recommend a simple and free "Download Protection" service. Just email the install files to your Gmail account for some free download protection. Or most developers will gladly send you the install files free if you send them your order confirmation. They don’t see any of the money from the "Download Protection" fee and so are usually glad to screw Handango.

If you tried both of the ways above with no luck you can always try the BBB. Handango is accredited with the BBB and has resolved all of their complaints in the last 36 months.

I wonder if Handango is going to try to sell extended warranties along with the download protection soon… I can see it already: $10 app + $4.99 protection + $3.99 extended warranty + $2.99 extended support…

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Handango Giving Out a Free Application Every Friday – Maybe…
• Handango Free App Friday – Real Dice Hearts For BlackBerry
• Handango Trying To Stifle Mobile Developers?
• Handango Offers 25% Off Everything – Year End Sale Coupon
• 2008 Handango Champion Award Winners

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, November 21, 2008, 11:00 am. | Rant! Handango’s Download Protection Is A Joke Gone Sour – Use Gmail As Free Download Protection | Leave a comment |

Slashdot aired this little beauty earlier today and I thought it was timely in respect to the article written here yesterday.

This really says to me; “Well hell, if fines and/or laws won’t stop people texting or taking phone calls whilst driving, then the software developers will”.

It was only really a matter of time before something like this was introduced and rest assured the insurance companies will jump on the bandwagon fairly soon and make this type of thing mandatory. Deprivation of liberty or downright big brother taking a further step??? Feel free to sound off in the comments section.

Quoted from Slashdot:“Canadian company Aegis Mobility has developed software that detects if a cell phone is moving at ‘car’ speeds. If so, the software, DriveAssistT, will alert the cellular network, telling it to hold calls and text messages until the drive is over. Calls are not blocked entirely; callers will be notified that the person appears to be driving, but they can still leave an emergency voice mail, which will be sent through immediately.”

Thank you, Slashdot, for the material on this one, and for those of you who want to investigate further, just click here.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• ZoomSafer Beta BlackBerry App Attempts to Stop Distracted Driving
• Should Carriers Charge You to Block Calls? Verizon Already Doing it
• Trapcall Beta – Unmask Calls With Blocked Caller ID
• DWT Ban in Colorado & North Carolina Starting Dec 1st
• Review: TxtForward

Posted by Greg for ©BerryReview, October 15, 2008, 3:22 am. | Prevention is easier than the Cure? | 10 comments |

After catching wind of the story in several news outlets, I decided to go after the source of the turmoil: a remarkably long thread at howardforums.com. Looks like Bell, the Canadian carrier, has decided to take a page from Verizon’s book. Several sources have been hinting at an evil plan devised by Bell to implement some kind of mechanism or network configuration that would make the native application Blackberry Maps run incredibly slow. So slow it would be insufferable and Bell’s victims customers would be compelled to use Bell’s own map service system for a mere $10 monthly fee. According to one of the Bell customers involved in the incensed discussion, Bell intends to get away with it using the following wording:

“Any client complaining about changes in Google Maps or Blackberry Maps service should be informed that these services do not use the Bell Network to return high quality locates. We have taken a business decision to provide it only for Bell-branded applications going forward. While we understand this may affect the performance of some applications, they were not developed with this enhanced function and their performance as a result is consistent with our competition.”

I admit that maybe I can’t read very well, but what I understand from that statement is that, according to Bell, some (native) applications were not developed with this enhanced function, i.e. USING THE CARRIER’S NETWORK. That is now considered some kind of privilege that is not part of the applications. “They were not developed with it,” says Bell. The statement does not explain why only Google Maps and Blackberry Maps are mentioned as applications that “were not developed” with the immense privilege of accessing the carrier’s network.

Still admitting that maybe I can’t read very well, I think there is some sort of blank to be filled in this story. What are Bell customers supposed to do “going forward”? Expect lousy performance from any application that is not “Bell-branded” or simply understand that only Google Maps and Blackberry Maps will be sabotaged impacted because Bell needs an excuse to impose an additional fee on its customer base and they “have taken a business decision” to try to pass this as an acceptable way to do it?

What is wrong with these companies these days? Why are so many of them infatuated with these preposterous ideas so akin to extortion?

The story isn’t over and now it seems that Bell could be dropping the idea. But no one is too sure of that yet. If you are a Bell customer and notice anything odd in your service, please let us know.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Bell Mobility Is Just As Draconian As Verizon When It Comes To Crippling GPS
• Bell Canada Also Getting BlackBerry 9630 Tour (Niagara) in July
• Bell Canada Getting BlackBerry Bold 9700 In November
• Google Maps Adds Experimental Voice Search
• Bell Canada Finally Offers Unlimited Data For $30/month

Posted by luc-mobile for ©BerryReview, October 14, 2008, 6:59 am. | Bell Canada crippling BB Maps? | 4 comments |

Then they got rid of Mobile SSH and Mobile Desktop products, integrating both into ridiculously priced ($595 plus 18% enforced maintenance fee/yr, total of $681) Mobile Admin. Many applications I have used includes the at least the first year of upgrades free of charge. Rove Mobile decided to charge extra (possibly a marketing trick to allure you to buy, but this is nothing new, it is an ongoing practice since their Idokorro days).

MobileSSH and Mobile Desktop products were priced extremely high as well, $99 each. At least then you had an option, you didn’t have to buy a function packed solution to get what you needed, plus they were quick to start and connect. Now that they are integrated into Mobile Admin, you have to go several more steps before you even get a chance to connect, so it feels like Rove Mobile is trying to rip customers even more. This is especially true, considering their original price in 2006 was $245 and then in 2007 it went to $495 and now $595. The rival Shape Services TSMobiles RDP client costs only $34.95, no maintenance fees, unlimited upgrades. Similarly their VNC+ is only $19.95 (Mobile Desktop supports both RDP and VNC, but still $64.90 is a lot cheaper, considering you don’t pay any yearly maintenance fees). For SSH, unfortunately MobileSSH is the best I have used, the freeware MidpSSH comes nowhere near.

I have used their upgraded Mobile Admin server and client, and to my surprise Vista and Windows 20008 is not supported (kudos goes to their QA department )

Considering Mobile Desktop development has stopped, even if you have a maintenance agreement, you will not be able to connect to Vista and Windows 2008, God knows when this will be supported. The weird thing is Vista has been out for sometime, so why it is not supported by Mobile Desktop (or Mobile Admin) is a mystery (TSmobiles supports it fine)

I think the main issue is that they are focusing more on the Enterprise Market, and us end users or SMBs are getting screwed, but wait it does not end there. With what seems to be a company re-structure or at least a corporate clean-up, the resellers are to getting a hammering from them. What’s been experienced is that those resellers that have had good turnovers with the products in their respective regions globally have been given preferential treatment and allowed to hold onto there Reseller Agreement from when it was Idokorro. Here is the screw over, those that have a slower market to contend with and have not had that turnover like the other resellers have simply been told you have to re-apply for your Reseller Agreement and here are the options. Their high-end reseller option has full support and maintenance, higher kickbacks on sales with them but there you have to pay them $10,000…yes…$10,000. The second and third tier options are not much to write home about, limited support, lower to no kickbacks. Rove get with the program, most vendors who break out of their own countries borders have varying options to cater for the multitude of markets out there. Lastly stop messing around with the Customer Portal, when customers cannot access this to attain and update devices and licensing, they scream blue murder.

So what have your experiences with Rove Mobile been? Please share your thoughts…

(Special thanks goes to Gareth, who shared his experiences related to Rove Mobile, especially Resellers portion)

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Rove Mobile Admin 4.1 Released – What Happened To The Rest Of Their Products?
• Suspicions Confirmed – Free Rove Mobile Viewer & Mobile File Manager Discontinued!!!
• ROVE Mobile File Manager (FTP) & Mobile Viewer Now Free!!!
• Rove Mobile Admin 5.0 Basics – Half the Price Half the Features
• Rove Releases Mobile Admin 4.2

Posted by Remzi Turer for ©BerryReview, September 25, 2008, 8:00 am. | Rant: What’s up with Rove Mobile | 9 comments |

I would first like to rant about this particular cell phone carrier for just a minute. I am sick of companies (no Verizon is not the first nor last company that has done/will do this) playing this game where they produce all of this production quality, top secret “training information” and then throw a fuss about it when it gets leaked. Folks, it’s 2009 we have video cameras in our cell phones. You’re a cell phone company, you should know this better than anyone.

Please stop pretending that you didn’t hope this information would find its way out, creating free advertising and mega hype for your product. We first wrote about the BlackBerry Thunder in May, 6 months before even the earliest possible release date, c’mon 6 months of free publicity? That’s any companies dream. So quit giving bloggers slack and start thanking them. Trust me, in November you’re going to be quite happy as to the number of customers this hype advertising has produced.

On to the news,

Straight from the BGR, it looks like Verizon will be providing weekly information to its employees in what has been dubbed “Talking Up a Storm”. Trust me, the BlackBerry community will be sick of Storm references by the time this mobile hits the market! So stay tuned every Wednesday for the newest information.

From this week’s Talking Up A Storm;

As we prepare to take the world by storm with our new BlackBerry Storm, we’re giving you a weekly sneak peek at some of the device’s key features.

Storm delivers all of the dependable functions BlackBerry is known for – e-mail, messaging and communication capabilities – packaged in a stylish and innovative communications device that runs only on America’s Largest 3G Network.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look.

Talk Up A Storm – Reliable BlackBerry Features

• E-mail
  • Productive customers will enjoy staying in touch and ahead of the game by getting their personal and work e-mail when not at their desks.
• Messaging
  • BlackBerry’s renowned messaging capabilities now incorporate a touch-screen that provides smooth, touch and click-through text input. This first-ever touch-screen BlackBerry has the largest and highest resolution screen, built to be the most accurate and most responsive screen of its time, allowing users to get accurate touch navigation and smooth precise text input.
• IM
  • With the Storm, customers can access consumer friendly IM, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and GoogleTalk, while still receiving access to the always popular BlackBerry Messenger.
• BroadbandAccess
  • Tethering Storm to a laptop is ideal for those who frequently travel and need to use a laptop to check e-mail, access corporate networks or download large files like presentations and reports. EV-DO Rev. A technology enables the highest speed wireless connection to BroadbandAccess, our business data service, which allows customers to wirelessly access their e-mail and calendars, the Internet and other information via a high-speed connection with the security of CDMA technology.
  • BroadbandAccess offers average download speeds of 600 kilobits per
    second (kbps) to 1.4 megabits per second and upload speeds of 500-800
    kbps, which means customers can download a 1 Megabyte e-mail attachment, the equivalent of a small PowerPoint® presentation or a large PDF
    file – in about eight seconds and upload the same-sized file in less
    than 13 seconds.
• The Network
  • Our network currently supports 68.7 million customers and reaches more than 265 million Americans. A device is only as good as the network it runs on and we have the nation’s most reliable wireless network, making the Storm a winner for all customers.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Verizon Storm Now At Category 3!
• Verizon Introduces New BlackBerry BIS Plan For $29.99/month
• Just Can’t Get Enough Of The Storm On Video… Storm To Sell For $199.99 w/2-year Contract On Verizon?
• Verizon Rolling Out Storm 9530 OS 4.7.0.148 Today at 3PM EST?
• Verizon+Alltel Now Officially The Nation’s Largest Carrier

Posted by Nate for ©BerryReview, September 19, 2008, 4:00 am. | Verizon Plays the Hype Game | Leave a comment |

BES v4.1 Service Pack 6 was released back in the middle of July… What are they doing sending out an email almost 2 months later announcing that it is “available now.”  Are we supposed to jump up and down and yell Yippee? Who exactly was RIM trying to target with this email? Any BES admin worth his salt would have heard of the upgrade months ago. Most users would not have a clue what this means. On top of the the top feature “HTML & Rich Text Email” is only available to OS 4.5 devices which are not even officially out for 90% of carriers…

Credit goes out to RIM for sending in this not so new news!

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RANT! What Happened To Native HTML Email?
• Rant! Another Rediculous BlackBerry Limitation?
• RANT! The Promising BlackBerry Wallet – What Happened?
• RANT! $1,310 Per Megabyte For Text Messages
• BlackBerry Device Software v4.5 Coming Soon?

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 10, 2008, 1:00 am. | RANT! RIM Newsletter Needs To Get With The program | 3 comments |

The Wallet application promised to simplify the online shopping experience from your BlackBerry. I have yet to hear of one company or website that supports this application! I tried speaking to a few and most are not even interested in it. I know some of you are going to say it is a bit too early to rant since it takes quite awhile for websites to adopt a standard. On the other hand RIM should be offering to promote a list of all websites that support the standard.

The problem is that it seems like RIM is not even bothering to promote the Wallet application standard. They have not even implemented it on their own www.shopblackberry.com website which by the way does not even have a mobile version. Also if they were really serious about the applications adoption they would have included it with all of the new devices that were just released with OS 4.5! All we have is a simple description on their website with a few paragraphs of text. YAY!

So what happened RIM? Was the Wallet just an afterthought? Is this just another Microsoft Wallet/Passport?

Let me know if you heard anything!

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Bplay Now Supports BlackBerry Wallet!!!
• BlackBerry Wallet – Website Integration Guide Released
• BlackBerry Wallet – More Info On How It Works (Will Work)
• RANT! What Happened To RIM’s Picasa BlackBerry Application?
• Free RIM BlackBerry Wallet Application! – Store Personal Information Securely

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 2, 2008, 12:30 pm. | RANT! The Promising BlackBerry Wallet – What Happened? | 9 comments |

Even if you have a 200 text message plan you are still paying 2.5 cents per text message.

I could not agree with Nicholas more. Then one of the comments by Marc reminded me of this article from back in the day. Some bored Scientist from Leicester had free time to calculate that it cost 4 times more to send a text message to a friend than it costs NASA to send the same data to the moon!

And yet I still have a $5 text message plan. (Muttering to myself!)

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Just How Bad Are Carriers Fleecing Us With Text Message Charges?
• RANT! My BlackBerry Has Lost Its Memory… Part III
• Verizon Trying To Kill 3rd Party SMS Services
• RANT! The Promising BlackBerry Wallet – What Happened?
• Tatango – Ad Supported Group/Distribution SMS Messages

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 2, 2008, 8:30 am. | RANT! $1,310 Per Megabyte For Text Messages | 11 comments |

Then I got this rant from Harold and had to share. I think this is an important lesson that Vlingo has learned the hard way. Releasing a service/software without the correct quality assurance has led to thousands of people being disappointed and turned off from their service. This is a lesson all developers should take to heart. Below is just one example of how users react to such issues in a final release.

Please understand that the main reason I am sharing this is not to point fingers but rather to show how a flopped launch can alienate a company’s potential customers. The fact that the service and application are free does not rectify the issue.

While Vlingo may have fixed some of these usability issues by the time you read this, the purpose and point of the rant still rings true. I truly feel bad since Vlingo really has a great idea but fumbled with the launch. They are not the first with such an issue and they will not be the last. Hopefully they are working hard to fix these issues in a future release.

(Begin Rant!)

An open letter to Vlingo from your former user Harold

How in the world do you get to the point where you are named one of the “Ten Emerging Mobile Players to Watch in 2008” and then release a product to the unsuspecting public that does not function as advertised?

HYPE!!!

Very early in the morning I received an email about this great new software that was going to change the way we use our BlackBerry Phones forever. I bit on the hype hook, line, and sinker and downloaded it OTA, only to find that there is a glitch. Ha glitch funny. I continued for four hours fighting with the Vlingo application. Going back and fourth to the forums to see if there was a fix. There was none but we are assured that one is on the way.

The hang up was at step 4 in the set up process. Vlingo prompts you to speak a phrase into the phone and then attempts to connect to its servers to do its thing. That’s as far as it would go for my 8100 and for many users. I tried in vain to change all the settings that Vlingo recommended, network settings, firewall, and permissions. NO JOY. There is a feature that lets you send in a help request to Vlingo and they send you a code to start the trouble shooter but alas that too failed as it is voice controlled.

What happened with the beta? I am not sure, I wasn’t in on it. Was it even beta tested on all the different Blackberry Models? Carriers? Maybe the data it is trying to send to the servers is to much on a GSM/CDMA connection and it will only work on WiFi. But isn’t that the purpose of beta testing?

Can it be fixed? I hope so. Vlingo will have to take a look at what the differences are between the beta and the release and see where they missed the boat.

I am not a developer or anything close to a technoweenie. In fact I am the polar opposite. I am a user of technology and devices that can seem frivolous to some but actually do serve a purpose in my life and work. I depend on the techno elite to do their service just as there are those that depend on me to fulfill my military duties on a daily basis.

Vlingo has released a product that does not perform anywhere close to what was advertised. This product was beta tested and some of those testers have responded on forums elsewhere that the beta version, though it had some issues, worked better than the release. The press release states ” Vlingo is currently supported on the BlackBerry(R) Pearl(TM), BlackBerry(R) Curve(TM) and BlackBerry(R) 8800 series smartphones. Vlingo will be adding additional devices and operating systems in the third and fourth quarters of 2008.” Not even close!! It may work on some of the phones (WiFi) but many users were left out in the cold.

So you might resort to saying: Whoa dude but it is a free service!!! You should be appreciative of their generosity.

Yeah, well, so is getting rescued at sea, but if I or my organization came to rescue you at sea half assed you could bet there would be some backlash. Nonetheless, I appreciate those that release their wares as free even if they are a little buggy. I even enjoy a beta test here and there. This is just beyond belief. I am supposed to be thankful that I downloaded some junkware, and I should be supportive of the effort, even after being misled?

Vlingo, in my opinion has lost some street cred in the Blackberry world, but not enough that it can’t recover it. Vlingo should also do themselves a favor and make sure your product works before you e-mail blast 3/4 of the free world in the early morning.

Yours truly,
Harold

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Vlingo 1.1 Officially Out Of Beta
• Vlingo Round 2 – Now Works For More People!
• Vlingo Opens Up Version 2.0 for Public Beta
• Vlingo To Add Reply/Forward To Email Functionality Soon
• Vlingo Study Shows There is a Market for their Solution

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, June 27, 2008, 11:35 am. | RANT! Pulling A Vlingo – A Case Study | 20 comments |

The shocking part is that Neil is already a veteran BlackBerry developer so he must have walked in with low expectations but even he was amazed. In his words “Everything Sucks!”

Turns out that Plazmic is riddled with bugs and can easily wipe out a users device. Anybody have to reload their device due? It also has not been updated in over a year!!!

All of these Plazmic 4.3 beta themes recently have shown that the new version offers a larger feature set but it seems to have th same stability bugs. The crazy part is that RIM is already releasing themes using Plazmic 4.3 on their mobile.blackberry.com website. Theme developers are telling me horror stories about what a Plazmic 4.3 theme can do to a device.

Weirdly enough RIM seems to be fine with developers releasing Plazmic 4.3 themes for free but if they charge for them RIM sends in their legal department.

So did I get all the details right Neil? Personally I just think this sucks that there is no end in sight for theme developers. Or am I missing the silver lining. Let me know!

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RANT! BlackBerry Platform Not Developer Friendly
• What’s The Story Plazmic? No Theme Love For The Storm Or 8900?
• Learn How to Start Developing Themes from a RIM Employee
• RANT! The Promising BlackBerry Wallet – What Happened?
• RANT! My BlackBerry Has Lost Its Memory… Part III

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, June 17, 2008, 9:29 am. | RANT! Why Is Developing For BlackBerry Such A Pain? | 7 comments |

So I have to ask… What the hell is taking so long?

Why develop a completely working application and then hold on to it for months. I was sure it was going to come out at least by WES but this is starting to get ridiculous.

RIM still has their Picasa page up on their website but even the screenshot there shows a picture from December 16^th 2007!!!

Anybody have any ideas? Leave a comment or send them to tips@berryreview.com.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RIM Picasa Application Seems To Be Gone For Good
• RANT! The Promising BlackBerry Wallet – What Happened?
• Hands On With New Picasa Application For BlackBerry
• Rant! What Ever Happened To Video On My BlackBerry?
• RANT! My BlackBerry Has Lost Its Memory… Part III

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, June 4, 2008, 9:37 am. | RANT! What Happened To RIM’s Picasa BlackBerry Application? | 6 comments |

From the coverage by the WSJ’s Livemint.com:

“The Blackberry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances,” the company said in a statement.

I personally thought that this whole fiasco should have ended at day 1. RIM should have just made the same statement and said sorry guys no-can-do. Did they really think it would be a good idea to set a precedent for monitoring the BlackBerry email network? That would compromise the whole security not to mention the reputation of the BlackBerry infrastructure as a whole.

So RIM, I have to ask. What took so long?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RIM Offers Scary Solution To India
• Fortune Ranks RIM #1 Fastest Growing Company in 2009
• RIM Sued Over Network Patent Yet Again…
• Make Sure To Check For (Employee/Student) Discounts From Carrier!
• Yammer: (Practically) Free Private Corporate Social Network with a BlackBerry Client

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, May 26, 2008, 1:12 pm. | RIM Growing A Backbone – Why Did It Take So Long? | One comment |

The crazy part is that after a contract the device price goes down according to Mobile Magazine.

Go for a two-year contact involving a service plan of at least $60 a month and the BlackBerry Curve 8330 can be yours for $179. Choose a plan under $60 and the price goes to $199 for the phone.

The $179 and $199 price point are for new service agreements, it seems, because existing Sprint customers will have to fork up $229.99 for the Curve, assuming that they have already fulfilled an existing two-year contract.

The general argument that carriers make is that they need the contracts to subsidize the phones. There is no way in hell that Sprint can make the argument that they are recovering $550 over a 2 year contract. This is just another way carriers are forcing customers to get tied into their contracts.

The funniest part is that even our friendly Canadian Telus carrier is claiming a $549.99 retail price. Does it cost $200 for Sprint to get their logo on the phone?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Sprint Roundup – Keeping iDEN – 8350i Pricing – New Early Termination Fees
• Sprint To Get BlackBerry 8330 Curve Sometime This Month
• RANT! AT&T Now Allows You To Just Buy A SIM Card? But Why?
• TELUS BlackBerry Tour Launch Date July 15th & Pricing
• Sprint Raising Text Message Charges to $.20

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, April 29, 2008, 11:05 am. | RANT! What Is The Point Of Retail Pricing For BlackBerry Devices | 5 comments |

Skype made an important announcement yesterday.

Today, the company released a beta version of Skype for your mobile, a mobile “thin” client that works on about 50 of the most popular Java-enabled mobile phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

The beta version of Skype for your mobile is available worldwide with a feature set that includes chat, group chat, presence (seeing when your contacts are online), and receiving calls from Skype users, and through SkypeIn.* Additional features, which include the making of Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls from the mobile handsets, are initially supported in seven markets: Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls! This new Java-based application is expected to require a phone call (callback) to initiate the calls then use the data connection to keep them going, which will make calls a lot cheaper.

But I am not excited by the news. I had a Palm device for quite some time and Skype still makes no application for the Palm. Now I have a Blackberry and it’s left out too.

“While Skype for your mobile is in beta,” O’Loughlin added, “it is an important time for us to listen to our users’ feedback, be it through surveys or user forums. We need to hear what delights them and where there is still work to be done.”

Listen to this then, O’Loughlin: Skype, go to hell. Competition, do something about it. Quick.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Some Interesting News About Skype For BlackBerry
• Hot ! Skype Beta app for the Storm leaked.
• Skype For BlackBerry Will Not Be True VOIP… Surprised?
• Official BlackBerry Skype App Confirmed For May
• IM+ Beta Adds Skype Chat – Voice to Text Coming This Month!

Posted by luc-mobile for ©BerryReview, April 25, 2008, 4:48 pm. | I hate Skype | 12 comments |

Now anyone who follows my articles knows I don’t get upset very easily. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I wrote a Rant.  

But this has really steamed me up so I thought I would write about it. 

Now for those who don’t know, Australia is a Free country. (As free, if not more so than the U.S or Canada). The new Australian government has decided to introduce new legislation to give employers the right to check any or all emails sent or received by their employees on work email addresses without your knowledge. The excuse, Cyber-Terrorism… Now I’ve got no problem with all the security upgrades worldwide since 9/11 but this is my eyes is going too far. What happened to privacy??? What happened to civil rights??? What happened to freedom of speech??? 

No more are we going to be able to call the boss a ‘wanker’ in inter-office emails. (If you don’t know what ‘wanker’ means hit this link ;  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanker . And yes, the picture above is of a young Paul Hogan in character as one of his personas, Leo Wanker). Now, most of us are guilty of saying a bad word or two about the boss to peers in the workplace. Some of this conversation usually spills over into emails.Now, would you send that same email if there was a chance your boss might intercept it? Probably not… 

Don’t get me wrong, some work places need to monitor emails for security purposes. (Law enforcement, security institutions and military installations are just a couple that come to mind). But in your stock standard law firm or accounting company I feel that tyrant type bosses are going to take advantage of this new power. 

An example would be;

(Before the new law)

”Hi Tony,The boss has really been riding me in the last week. If the bastard would start to work on the project at hand more than his bloody golf handycap then life would be a heap easier…

Take CareFred”

(After the new law)

”Dear Mr Anthony J Wright,

Sorry for not replying to your inter office emails for the last week or so. I have several meetings this morning but am totally on top of the situation.

By the way, I heard it around the office that Mr (Insert bosses name here) is a fantastic golfer and could hold his own with the likes of Tiger Woods.

Anyway, work to do…

Yours Sincerely,

Mr Frederick Wrong.”

Ok, I will get off my soapbox now and open up the floor. Do you agree with this type of security upgrade or not? (And is there any such legislation and where else?)(Or am I just way out of line and should just submit to loosing another part of my privacy?) Comment away… 

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RANT! The Promising BlackBerry Wallet – What Happened?
• Review: Case-Mate Privacy Screen – Shield Your Berry From Unwanted Eyes
• RANT! Why Many Airport Security Regulations Are Senseless
• Customer Goes to Verizon CEO’s Private Address to Discuss Privacy
• RANT! Pulling A Vlingo – A Case Study

Posted by Greg for ©BerryReview, April 14, 2008, 6:16 am. | Rant ; Where’s our privacy !!! | 17 comments |

From RIM’s Knowledge Base

Reply to all is not received by more than 32 recipients

Details: When an email message is received by more than 32 recipients, the email message on the BlackBerry smartphone displays a truncated list of 32 recipient email addresses. If the BlackBerry smartphone user sends a reply to all recipients, only the 32 recipients on the truncated list will receive the reply.

Note: When sending email messages from the BlackBerry smartphone, there is no limit to the number of email addresses that can be added to each of the To, Bcc, and Cc fields. When receiving email messages, only 32 email addresses can be displayed in the To and Cc fields.

This is by design.

Seriously RIM! It is by design that you can only reply to 32 people in a mailing list?

The only thing I can think of as a reason for this restriction is that people might use it to send spam by sending mail through the RIM servers this way. The problem with that theory is that if that was the case this limitation should not exist for BES and Novell users also!

Anybody got any other ideas?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• FAQ: Webmail Accounts That Give You Real Time Delivery (Push) With BIS
• FAQ: Can’t Disable Or Suppress Read Receipts On BES… Why Oh Why RIM?
• RIM Explains Their BIS Spam Scoring/Reputation System
• RANT! RIM Newsletter Needs To Get With The program
• RANT! BlackBerry Platform Not Developer Friendly

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, April 10, 2008, 9:03 am. | Rant! Another Rediculous BlackBerry Limitation? | 3 comments |

One of the things that always bothered me about the BlackBerry OS is why it takes more than a minute to boot after I pull the battery to restart. Many times it takes upwards of 2–3+ minutes until it restarts. To be honest until a year ago I never really pulled the battery on my BlackBerry but with the recent memory leak problems and having to take out the MicroSD card that is underneath the battery I have been doing this frequently.

Is this something inherent with running JAVA as the basis for the BlackBerry OS? Would it really kill RIM to give us a loading screen beyond a spinning hourglass? This is even worse when you reload the OS from scratch where the first boot can take upwards of 20 minutes!!! Maybe if they gave us an optional view into the console showing which modules were being loaded…

I also find that every time I pull the battery my BlackBerry reboots with 5–10% less battery life then before the reboot. The main reason I do it is that when I reboot I get to reclaim all of the memory that is lost due to the memory leak problem. I know that long boot times are nothing new for smartphone OS’s but even my underpowered Symbian and Windows Mobile Smartphone devices rebooted quicker than this. Some of those even had loading screens.

So I have to ask. How long are your boot times after you pull the battery on your BlackBerry?

I am starting to create a personal RANT list of things RIM needs to fix. I will probably ask all of you to chip in before I send it off to RIM… At the top of my list is a proper task manager that shows where the memory leak is coming from. Or better yet a fix for the memory leak.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Tips and Tricks: How to Boot up in Safe Mode.
• RANT! My BlackBerry Has Lost Its Memory… Part III
• RANT! The Promising BlackBerry Wallet – What Happened?
• RANT! My BlackBerry Is Running Out Of Memory! AGAIN!
• RANT! $1,310 Per Megabyte For Text Messages

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, April 7, 2008, 10:01 am. | RANT! Why The Long Boot Times? | 6 comments |

More about the so-called Blackberry Owners’ Lounge. By now it’s very clear what that Lounge thing means: throw a red sofa here and there around the site, call the site an “Owners’ Lounge” to invoke the idea of basking in something “premium” or “exclusive”, and that’s it! No need to put in any real meat. Even after almost a year of existence there is still barely anything available from the Owners Lounge. They have been promising us a mobile version of the lounge for months with no avail!

Why is the Blackberry Owners’ Lounge advertising a limited 10-feed version of Freerange as “FREE software” (caps and all) as if it were a big deal and not in fact a limited edition that’s always been available elsewhere?

And why is it advertising the regular commercial 30-day trial of IM+ in the Owners Lounge Exclusives section of the site? What particular idea do they have of the meaning of the word “exclusive”?

And what’s the deal with FOX Business News For Lounge Members? It’s not even an application, it’s just the mobile version of a site. How can that be “exclusive”?

And 30-Day FREE TRIAL – wow, free trial!!! – of Garmin. Also in the Exclusives section. As if nobody else could have the great honor of using that trial.

I know I am a very bad man who’s going straight to hell, but I can’t help visiting that Owners Lounge site and seeing the following message being dropped on every passer-by: “People who buy Blackberries are obviously stupid and devoid of any judging capacity, so let’s treat them accordingly”. Way to convey Blackberry superiority to potential new customers! Where do these marketing people get their diplomas?

Click the links above or the large screenshots below if you want to see it with your own stupid Blackberry user’s eyes.

I think RIM could have gone one of two ways with their “Lounge”:

• Give us real treats from time to time. Come on. Four Web sites have teamed up to give away a completely free and full-featured version of Freerange. Why can’t RIM? Ronen arranged with Mobihand a 20% discount on all software purchased at the BerryReview store, valid for more than a month. Hey! He’s doing it again, 15% this time! Why can’t RIM?
• Give us nothing. That’s fine, we understand we live in a capitalist world. And they still can sell stuff on their “Lounge”. But don’t lie to us. How about this copy instead?

“Are you a brand new Blackberry owner? You probably have noticed that your Blackberry already has several applications that guarantee your permanent connection with the most important people in your life. But there is more! Discover many other exciting applications you can buy to make your Blackberry experience even better. We have several suggestions from our most valued partners.”

Wouldn’t that be a lot more honest? But apparently RIM came up with a third choice: give us nothing while trying (not too hard) to make it look as if we were getting something extra.

To be fair, at least the games are bona fide. They are indeed free and most of them are great. But we don’t need this Lounge scam for that. The games have been available from the actually exclusive Blackberry browser’s Home page for a long time.

If a company that has a net income of $412.5 million can’t hire better copywriters and sponsor real promotions that make that “Lounge” stuff ever be useful or even make sense, then maybe they should just close it. Who would miss it? Why??? It’s been around for months and served no purpose except cause us embarrassment. Leave the lying and deceiving to the carriers. You can’t compete with them in that.

What about you? Can you not make that instant connection between blatant lies and what they seem to make of our intelligence as Blackberry users?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• BlackBerry Owners Lounge Comes To the UK
• Some Mild Promotions In The Owners Lounge
• Free Pub Checkers Game In Owners Lounge
• Free $5 Starbucks Gift Card In BlackBerry Owners Lounge
• Free Holiday Midnight Pool Game In BlackBerry Owners Lounge

Posted by luc-mobile for ©BerryReview, April 7, 2008, 9:04 am. | RANT! More Red Sofa Nonsense | 7 comments |